The “one stop shop.” Based on research done by Phrases.org.uk, the term originated sometime in the 1920s or 1930s, with the oldest known usage coming from an auto shop advert in The Lincoln Star newspaper.

The concept of a one stop shop, a place where you can get all sorts of products and services in one place, has worked well for the mega retailers of the world like Wal-Mart, Tesco, and Target. We all know that the combination of a super retailer’s massive buying power, mixed with location based convenience creates a powerful draw on offline consumers looking to get what they need as quickly and cheaply as possible.

But as small scale marketers, we need to be careful when we assume that what works best for the biggest and brightest in the offline world is the right way to do things in the online world.

Here’s the thing, if you are an affiliate marketer, and you are aiming to be successful and build a business, the one stop shop concept is of no use to you. To begin with, half of the draw of an offline one stop shop is the ability to get a lot of different purchases made the same physical location. But in the virtual world, physical location really isn’t a concern since every product or service is just a Google search away.

But even taking the physical location aspect of the one stop shop strategy out of the mix, some affiliate would still argue that it is very convenient to get all of your online shopping done in one place. Naturally, whey would offer up Amazon or eBay as an example of one stop shop success. What they are forgetting is that Amazon didn’t start as a one stop shop, it started as an online book store. And eBay, a place to buy and sell Pez dispensers. You see, these companies grew and matured into a one stop shop of sorts, but they started and originally succeeded because they weren’t trying to be everything to everyone right out of the gate.